Kolkata to get cyber police station in every division

The four-fold jump in cybercrimes in the city over the last five years has prompted the Kolkata Police top brass to set up at least one dedicated cyber police station in each of the nine police divisions in the city. The first of them will come up this week in the south suburban division — more popularly referred as the Jadavpur division. Though formal launch was expected on Monday, source said, the launch may be delayed by a couple of days so that top cops in Lalbazar can attend the inauguration. A new post called DC (Cyber Crime) has been where Santosh Pandey (IPS) has been inducted back in to Kolkata Police. “The new cell will be independently helping local police depending on the requirements,” said a top officer from south-suburban police. “We have had the cyber crime police station and antibank fraud sections dealing extensively with cybercrimes under the detective department at Lalbazar. There are several reasons why we are setting it up here — firstly, several complainants feel a local police station is ill-eqipped to handle such cases but are afraid of reaching Lalbazar directly. Secondly, the cyber cell is getting overburdened with work and sometimes they need to prioritize the investigations based on prevailing ground situation and victims suffer due to backlog of cases. Finally, this part of the city has a huge influx of youths – those working in the corporate sector or those coming here to study choose to stay in this division,” said a senior officer.